The Couple Installation
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: Penny, ever the matchmaker, talks to Bernadette about meeting Howard Wolowitz.  Set during "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary."


**No update to The Witness Perturbation today-sorry! I had a Re-Watcher's club with my friends at FanForum and I started to go through a new chapter, but I had some organizational difficulties. Maybe an update tomorrow, depending. **

**Anyway, the episode we watched for Re-Watcher's inspired this. I own nothing.**

"Hey, Bernadette," Penny said, drying her hands on a towel and smiling as the other waitress entered the break room. Penny'd just gotten on break; Bernadette's shift was almost over and the restaurant had been so busy that she hadn't had time to talk to her yet. Luckily, Penny had gone on break before the other waitress clocked out.

"Hi, Penny," the other waitress said in the voice that always made her sound incredibly shy. "You on lunch?"

"Not taking one today; just ten minutes. I've got a bit of a headache."

"I'm sorry," she said, smiling and standing next to the small employee table. "I was going to head home and then go visit my mother-my shift's over. Do you want aspirin?"

"Nah," Penny said. She motioned to the chair across from her. "Wanna sit?"

Bernadette glanced at the door. "Um…I need to go and visit my mother but…you know what? It can wait. I'm always on time; I won't be a horrible daughter if I'm late once." She eased into the seat.

"So," Penny said, giving the other blonde a smile. "Anything new and exciting in your life?"

"What do you mean?" Bernadette asked, looking confused.

"You know, friends, parties, boys…" Penny shrugged, folding her arms and leaning back. "Chit-chat me, girl!"

Bernadette shrugged. "You know, the usual. Studying. Penny?"

"Hmmm?" Penny looked over at the other waitress. She and Bernadette weren't the best of friends; they hadn't known each other more than a few months. But she was sweet, and a little odd, but in an endearing way; Penny really liked her and she didn't seem like the type to disown a friend if a blind date went wrong. If she was going to find a girl that would agree to date Howard, and live up her end of Leonard's end of the deal, she had to get Bernadette to agree. She was easily the best shot, and as uncomfortable as she felt being put into this position, she didn't want to let Leonard down.

"Why do you ask?"

Was she curious or simply confused? Penny couldn't tell. She was used to reading socially awkward geniuses and socially adjusted…non – geniuses. From what she knew of Bernadette, the student was somewhere in the middle, and Penny was unsure what side of the spectrum to lean toward when evaluating her responses. "Well, you know my boyfriend, Leonard?"

Bernadette nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay, well…" Penny hesitated, unsure if she should explain the pact or not. She decided that Bernadette was mid –spectrum, the explanation should be, too. "He asked me, last night, if I knew anyone that might like to meet his friend Howard."

"And you thought of me?" Bernadette asked. "I haven't dated since…a long time."

"I know," Penny said. She vaguely remembered overhearing something like that. "But look, Bernadette, this Howard is a great guy. I _instantly_ thought of you."

Well, that little lie perked Bernadette up. "Really?" She smiled happily.

Penny nodded, glad she got Bernadette to smile. It was something the other waitress often did, but never so freely. She stressed about her studies a lot, and it stopped her from enjoying herself. Howard would certainly help her to lighten up, for sure. "He's an aerospace engineer."

"Wow," Bernadette said, raising her eyebrows slightly in surprise. "Does he do any work for NASA?"

Penny frowned. "I think so. There was some weird contraption in Leonard's apartment about five months ago, and I think it was his. It seemed… NASA-y. They said it was some sort of pasta maker, but I'm not stupid."

Bernadette's eyes had lit up. "So he's out of school?"

"Yeah," Penny said, nodding. "He's five years older than we are. He's got a Master's Degree."

"Not bad," she said, nodding. "What else do you know about him?"

Penny wondered how much she should tell. "Well, I've known him for three years, and he's a really good guy, deep down. He was kind of…silly…when I met him, but he's grown up a lot. He's a really smart guy and he…deserves to meet someone great like you." She leaned over the table. "So are you in?"

Bernadette looked at Penny with an expression of very pleasant surprise. "Yeah. I am."

"Great!" Penny said, surprising herself with the level of excitement in her voice. "Leonard and I were thinking you could double with us. Friday?"

"Sure," Bernadette said, looking incredibly excited. "You might want to warn him, though. I get really shy on blind dates."

Penny smiled. "Howard's probably going to try too hard, just warning you, but I'm sure it'll be fine." She meant it. She'd picked Bernadette as a girl with the most chance, of her friends, to be able to tolerate Howard. Now, after talking to her, Penny had a funny feeling that this was going to work out okay. "I'll call you with the details after Leonard and I work them out, okay?"

"Yeah. Sounds really good," she said, nodding. "I'm excited."

Penny stood up. Her break was over. "Yeah," she said, nodding. "Me, too. Gotta go."

She exited the break room, walked down the hall and out into the restaurant, and marched over to where Leonard and Sheldon sat at a table. She bent down next to Leonard and whispered, "_Mission so freaking accomplished_."

**I'm under the assumption that while Penny and Bernadette knew each other, they weren't as close as they are now at the time she fixed her up with Howard. So I wrote it that way-if readers have a different interpretation, well, this is just the one I have!**

**Hope you liked it!**


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